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Scruffy Saunton Surf

Had a scruffy old surf at Saunton yesterday. But: sometimes having little or no expectations leads to good times. Though the small waves were a mess - taking one was like entering a bleedin' lottery - I had good fun and was just happy to be back in the water with stinging eyes. Caught some reasonable rides amongst the waves that disappeared, closed-out or otherwise conspired to baffle and confuse. Those good rides shone out like jewels because of the chaos around. That reminds me of a book I read years ago: "The Magic Christian" written by Terry Southern. In the book the protagonist fills an enormous swimming pool size vat with excrement and money and advertises "free money". Everyone jumps in. I suppose that's a bit like my surf yesterday.

There's nothing like messy conditions to mess-up your surfing, mess with your head and make you reassess your opinion of your own surfing ability. So while I was out there, thinking about what a kook I was being, I wondered what stage I was at this time last year?

Now I come to look back I was away from the surf, suffering a twisted knee and was just catching my first green waves. Seems an awful long time ago! But a nostalgic boost to me to realize that I caught so many rides yesterday that were a million times better than anything I'd ridden one year ago.

Right, I'm off to work on a mantra because the surf forecast is looking rather gloomy...